7,035 research outputs found
Calibrating AGN Feedback in Clusters
Whether caused by AGN jets, shocks, or mergers, the most definitive evidence
for heating in cluster cores comes from X-ray spectroscopy. Unfortunately such
spectra are essentially limited to studying the emission spectrum from the
cluster as a whole. However since the same underlying emission measure
distribution produces both the observed CCD and RGS spectra, X-ray imaging can
still provide spatial information on the heating process. Using Chandra
archival data for a sample of 9 clusters, we demonstrate how imaging data can
be used to constrain departures from a canonical, isobaric cooling flow model
as a function of position in a given cluster. The results of this analysis are
also shown for the deep archival exposure of the Perseus cluster. Such heating
maps can provide constraints on both the location and magnitude of the heating
in the cores of clusters. When combined with detections and spectral index maps
from low-frequency radio observations, these maps can be used to distinguish
between different models for heating in these objects.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; to appear in the proceedings of "The Monsters'
Fiery Breath", Madison, Wisconsin 1-5 June 2009, Eds. Sebastian Heinz & Eric
Wilcot
Limits to compression with cascaded quadratic soliton compressors
We study cascaded quadratic soliton compressors and address the physical
mechanisms that limit the compression. A nonlocal model is derived, and the
nonlocal response is shown to have an additional oscillatory component in the
nonstationary regime when the group-velocity mismatch (GVM) is strong. This
inhibits efficient compression. Raman-like perturbations from the cascaded
nonlinearity, competing cubic nonlinearities, higher-order dispersion, and
soliton energy may also limit compression, and through realistic numerical
simulations we point out when each factor becomes important. We find that it is
theoretically possible to reach the single-cycle regime by compressing
high-energy fs pulses for wavelengths in a
-barium-borate crystal, and it requires that the system is in the
stationary regime, where the phase mismatch is large enough to overcome the
detrimental GVM effects. However, the simulations show that reaching
single-cycle duration is ultimately inhibited by competing cubic nonlinearities
as well as dispersive waves, that only show up when taking higher-order
dispersion into account.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Optics Expres
Nonlocal explanation of stationary and nonstationary regimes in cascaded soliton pulse compression
We study soliton pulse compression in materials with cascaded quadratic
nonlinearities, and show that the group-velocity mismatch creates two different
temporally nonlocal regimes. They correspond to what is known as the stationary
and nonstationary regimes. The theory accurately predicts the transition to the
stationary regime, where highly efficient pulse compression is possible.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, published verison in Optics Letters. Contains
revised equations, including an updated mode
Ultrafast and octave-spanning optical nonlinearities from strongly phase-mismatched cascaded interactions
Cascaded nonlinearities have attracted much interest, but ultrafast
applications have been seriously hampered by the simultaneous requirements of
being near phase-matching and having ultrafast femtosecond response times. Here
we show that in strongly phase-mismatched nonlinear frequency conversion
crystals the pump pulse can experience a large and extremely broadband
self-defocusing cascaded Kerr-like nonlinearity. The large cascaded
nonlinearity is ensured through interaction with the largest quadratic tensor
element in the crystal, and the strong phase-mismatch ensures an ultrafast
nonlinear response with an octave-spanning bandwidth. We verify this
experimentally by showing few-cycle soliton compression with noncritical
cascaded second-harmonic generation: Energetic 47 fs infrared pulses are
compressed in a just 1-mm long bulk lithium niobate crystal to 17 fs (under 4
optical cycles) with 80% efficiency, and upon further propagation an
octave-spanning supercontinuum is observed. Such ultrafast cascading is
expected to occur for a broad range of pump wavelengths spanning the near- and
mid-IR using standard nonlinear crystals.Comment: resubmitted, revised version, accepted for Phys. Rev. Let
Diffuse radio emission in MACS J0025.41222: the effect of a major merger on bulk separation of ICM components
Mergers of galaxy clusters are among the most energetic events in the
Universe. These events have significant impact on the intra-cluster medium,
depositing vast amounts of energy - often in the form of shocks - as well as
heavily influencing the properties of the constituent galaxy population. Many
clusters have been shown to host large-scale diffuse radio emission, known
variously as radio haloes and relics. These sources arise as a result of
electron (re-)acceleration in cluster-scale magnetic fields, although the
processes by which this occurs are still poorly understood. We present new,
deep radio observations of the high-redshift galaxy cluster MACS
J0025.41222, taken with the GMRT at 325 MHz, as well as new analysis of all
archival X-ray observations. We aim to investigate the potential of
diffuse radio emission and categorise the radio population of this cluster,
which has only been covered previously by shallow radio surveys. We produce
low-resolution maps of MACS J0025.41222 through a combination of uv-tapering
and subtracting the compact source population. Radial surface brightness and
mass profiles are derived from the data. We also derive a 2D map of
the ICM temperature. For the first time, two sources of diffuse radio emission
are detected in MACS J0025.41222, on linear scales of several hundred kpc.
Given the redshift of the cluster and the assumed cosmology, these sources
appear to be consistent with established trends in power scaling relations for
radio relics. The X-ray temperature map presents evidence of an asymmetric
temperature profile and tentative identification of a temperature jump
associated with one relic. We classify the pair of diffuse radio sources in
this cluster as a pair of radio relics, given their consistency with scaling
relations, location toward the cluster outskirts, and the available X-ray data.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in A&
The Insignificance of Global Reheating in the Abell 1068 Cluster: X-Ray Analysis
We report on a Chandra observation of the massive, medium redshift (z=0.1386)
cooling flow cluster Abell 1068. We detect a clear temperature gradient in the
X-ray emitting gas from kT ~ 5 keV in the outer part of the cluster down to
roughly 2 keV in the core, and a striking increase in the metallicity of the
gas toward the cluster center. The total spectrum from the cluster can be fit
by a cooling flow model with a total mass deposition rate of 150 solar
masses/yr. Within the core (r < 30 kpc), the mass depositon rate of 40 solar
masses/yr is comparable to estimates for the star formation rate from optical
data. We find an apparent correlation between the cD galaxy's optical isophotes
and enhanced metallicity isocontours in the central ~100 kpc of the cluster. We
show that the approximate doubling of the metallicity associated with the cD
can be plausibly explained by supernova explosions associated with the cD's
ambient stellar population and the recent starburst. Finally, we calculate the
amount of heating due to thermal conduction and show that this process is
unlikely to offset cooling in Abell 1068.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 26 pages, 12 b+w figures, 3 color
figure
Early Science with the Karoo Array Telescope: a Mini-Halo Candidate in Galaxy Cluster Abell 3667
Abell 3667 is among the most well-studied galaxy clusters in the Southern
Hemisphere. It is known to host two giant radio relics and a head-tail radio
galaxy as the brightest cluster galaxy. Recent work has suggested the
additional presence of a bridge of diffuse synchrotron emission connecting the
North-Western radio relic with the cluster centre. In this work, we present
full-polarization observations of Abell 3667 conducted with the Karoo Array
Telescope at 1.33 and 1.82 GHz. Our results show both radio relics as well as
the brightest cluster galaxy. We use ancillary higher-resolution data to
subtract the emission from this galaxy, revealing a localised excess, which we
tentatively identify as a radio mini-halo. This mini-halo candidate has an
integrated flux density of mJy beam at 1.37 GHz,
corresponding to a radio power of P
W Hz, consistent with established trends in mini-halo power scaling.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, accepted MNRA
- …